Leveraging Federal Funding Streams to Build Rural Economies (original) (raw)
Related papers
Keeping Opportunities in Place: The Influence of the Rural Community College Initiative
Community College Press, 2008
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is the primary advocacy organization for the nation's community colleges. The association represents more than 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions and more than 11 million students. AACC promotes community colleges through five strategic action areas: recognition and advocacy for community colleges; student access, learning, and success; community college leadership development; economic and workforce development; and global and intercultural education. Information about AACC and community colleges may be found at www.aacc.nche.edu.
Challenges Facing Rural Community Colleges: Issues and Problems Today and Over the Past 30 Years
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2006
For over 30 years, researchers and practitioners have identified challenges unique to small, rural community colleges. The purpose of this study was to examine the distinctive problems facing rural community colleges today and the challenges those institutions must address to fulfill their mission in rural America. There are 5 current challenges commonly identified by 10 rural community college administrators in Kansas: technology use, grant writing, an evolving student population and corresponding changes to the mission, funding inequalities between institutions, and hiring qualified people. Identified challenges were compared with problems described in the literature from the last 30 years. 642 K. Pennington et al. workshops were conducted on the topic, and the Task Force on Rural Community Colleges was created to address these unique concerns. The task force offered an operational definition of the rural community college as publicly supported, located in a population center of under 100,000 people, serving a vast geographic area, and having programmatic thrust towards comprehensiveness (Vineyard, 1979). There are over 700 selfidentified rural community colleges in the United States today (Griffin, 1995), and their impact on rural communities and residents is an important topic for further research (Jensen, 2003 ; Pedersen, 2003). The sources of unique challenges for the rural community college include the geographical and economic context of the rural setting, as well as systemic and programmatic features of the community college system and structure. GEOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT Rural community colleges are charged with serving a small population located in a large geographic area. The distances between the college and its students and related communication problems are fundamental concerns (Davis, 1975 ; Vineyard, 1979). In areas with limited cultural, social, and recreational services, rural community colleges may be the only source of cultural avocation and personal enrichment in the region (Phillips, 1975 ; Vineyard, 1979). Geographic limitations may also be problematic in recruiting and retaining faculty who may not be attracted to life in small towns, where housing is in short supply and where their political and cultural values often differ from the local citizens (Phillips, 1975 ; Vineyard, 1978 ; Weiss et al., 1986). Along with geographic barriers, economic concerns present a range of challenges to rural community colleges. These colleges have small tax bases that are often not diversified (Phillips, 1975 ; Vineyard, 1979). Parents and other adults often have lower educational levels, and economic conditions in the community may mean a lack of part-time jobs for students and full-time positions for graduates (Vineyard, 1979). The rural community college's mission, once seen as labor force development, is shifting to one of broader economic development in the community (Weiss et al., 1986). PROGRAMMATIC CONCERNS Rural community colleges are charged with providing comprehensive programs to a relatively small student population. The inefficiencies that accompany this demand prevent rural community colleges from
‘Do Rural Community Colleges Supply Unique Educational Benefits
Community colleges likely draw to college individuals who would otherwise not attend due to their low costs and open admission requirements. This is labeled as the democratization effect. They may also divert individuals away from 4-year to terminal 2-year college degrees (the diversion effect). This study estimates democratization and diversion effects separately for nonmetropolitan and metropolitan youth using nationally representative data and models that account for endogenous institution selection. We find the democratization effect to exceed the diversion effect of community colleges for both metro and nonmetro youth. The democratization-diversion ratio is slightly higher for urban youth.
1999
This brief reports on the Ford Foundation's establishment of the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) for selected institutions in economically distressed areas of the Southeast, Deep South, Southwest, Appalachia, and western Indian reservations. This is the fourth report in a series by the RCCI Documentation Team. The RCCI program challenges community colleges to become catalysts for change through two mutual and complementary goals: expanding access to higher education and fostering regional economic development. This brief examines the experiences of the nine pilot RCCI colleges and their efforts to acquire the capacities for change, and identifies implications for other institutions facing similar challenges. It suggests that an institution's capacity to meet these two goals requires attention to institutional cultures, leadership style, and organizational infrastructure. In strengthening these areas, community colleges can improve their effectiveness in building human resources and social capacities for survival and success in a changing world. Colleges must look seriously at new roles, partnerships, and marketing, as well as value systems that include team-building strategies, risk taking, and openness to expanded access, economic development, and local cultures. Contains 12 references. (VWC)
2014
In the decades following World War II, a significant expansion of community colleges occurred throughout the United States. As the baby boom generation came of age, demand for higher education spiked, and policy makers allocated the requisite funding to expand institutions of higher education. This expansion, including vigorous funding from federal, state, and local units of government, was politically popular. This openhanded support ended in the latter decades of the twentieth century as hostility to paying taxes and to public spending mounted. In recent decades, community colleges have competed with other social expenditures, such as prisons and health care demands, for scarce public resources. And, in a number of states, community colleges have fared poorly in this competition. Using multivariate analyses and data gathered from several sources, including the American Association of Community Colleges, the authors examine the impacts of community colleges on local employment tren...